Now on to her birth...Monday night I had a lot of lower back pain and it didn't really go away until the next morning. It snowed about a foot Monday into Tuesday morning, and while Keith decided to work from home all day, I'm thankful that his job allows him to do this, I had a midwife appointment at 1pm that I was set on going to no matter what. So crazy kid me shoveled half the driveway with the boys semi helping and then let Keith do the rest.
I had my appointment and my midwife told me that I was contracting. I just didn't feel it at this moment. Fast forward to Thursday and I while I was making dinner I started having a few contractions that I actually felt but they stopped when I sat down for actual dinner.
Friday night, I didn't have any more contractions, but for some reason there was so much pressure and baby felt so low that I just couldn't sit. I found myself hanging over an exercise ball just because it felt better and then I went to bed hoping to get some sleep.
At 2am I was woken up by contractions that continued every 7-10 minutes till about 5:30. But nothing really picked up and actually around 5 they slowed down. So tried to sleep and got about an hour or so of sleep before the kids woke up.
This whole week Ephraim had insisted on staying as close to me as possible. I think he could tell something was about to happen. So he stayed up later than normal watching the olympics with us and slept on the crib mattress beside us or on the floor if he rolled off looking like this.
It was like he was my own little watch dog. He refused to be moved, so we just let him be.
Things slowed down for a few hours in the morning, but I still called my midwife to give her a heads up because well, I haven't had false/warm-up labor to that extent before. So I figured I should at least let her know what was happening. She said she had one appointment to go to and then would be at her MIL's house, which happens to be about 4 houses away from ours.
I figured I was in labor at this point, but I just felt like it was going to take awhile, so I sent Keith to Target to get some things we were missing in the house, and since I hadn't gotten my GBS result back, I needed the rinse that prevents GBS from becoming an issue. I haven't been GBS positive before, but I know it lives in your system and can present itself at anytime and causes major issues with baby. Thus, better safe than sorry.
Keith came back and at this point I had started a puzzle and the in-laws were called to come get the kids. So around 10:30-11am the boys were picked up and oddly contractions started getting closer again. I watched a whole bunch of house hunters on Amazon Prime TV and by noon or shortly after I again called the midwife, because well things were more intense. I got her voicemail but within a few minutes she called back and said she was in the neighborhood and would be there in 2 minutes. And a good thing she was because apparently active labor was pretty short for me, about an hour.
We tried to set up the tub, but well, it takes more than an hour to do. I think next time if we do water, I think I will tell Keith to just start it as soon as labor starts because well otherwise its useless with me since there is not enough time.
The midwife was cool about everything though and Keith and her just quickly made up the bed for birth because she knew I was close. I remember asking to use the bathroom, because well, I just think for me its natural with all the pressure to want to bear down over something. But she reminded me if I did that, there was probably going to be a baby born in a toilet. And while she was okay if I wanted to do that, I thought it might be a nicer story to tell baby later that she wasn't.
So in about 3 pushes I had a baby girl out. I was totally amazed she was a girl, despite the feeling the whole time that it was a girl. It took about 20 minutes afterward for the placenta to deliver itself, but it didn't matter because I had a baby girl in my arms. All the mess went away quickly and nothing was ruined or stained in the house.
It was honestly not highly dramatic like last time and I think I needed that. I know God was still looking out for me though with the uncertainties of short active labor and him putting my midwife right in the neighborhood when I needed her to be. I am thankful to have a healthy, beautiful baby girl in my life now and I am enjoying all the shenanigans her brothers are causing in the chaos of a new baby. Now if only could get the boys to call her baby Helena or Lena instead of baby Gaby which they insist on calling her.
Helena Perpetua
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